UO theater season opens with Broadway musical ‘Avenue Q’

Whether you’re 22 or 64, navigating the oft-choppy waters of adulthood can be tricky, but University Theatre’s production of “Avenue Q” serves up a course in Adulting 101 … with puppets.

Opening its 2018–19 season, this quirky, Tony-award winning Broadway musical, adapted from 1993 UO graduate Jeff Whitty’s book, touches on themes of race, sexuality and the universal search to find purpose in life.

Department of Theatre Arts doctoral candidate Zeina Salame, director of “Avenue Q,” faced several hurdles to bring the play to the UO — in particular, updating a show that was first produced 15 years ago to reflect changes in language and technology.

“A lot has changed for us in the way we talk about things. For example: race, gender and politics in the last 15 years,” she said. “There are some things that are in the play that are frowned upon now. How do we invite and encourage the play without changing the play? That’s a tricky negotiation.”

And even with assistance from David Mort, a local theater artist who made the puppets and coached the students in how to work with them, puppets can be challenging.

“You have a different set of relationships to negotiate: the relationships between the performer and the audience, the performer and the puppet, the puppet and the audience, and the relationship between the performer’s puppet and other performers and their puppets,” she said. “And how do you create pictures and stories and meaningful relationships that resonate with the audience while you’re navigating all those components?”

And speaking of puppets, it might look like “Sesame Street,” but a disclaimer from the department notes that the play, which contains “strong language, adult themes and some puppet nudity,” is definitely not for kids.

“This play is not for children, but it is for the children that each of us once was,” Salame said. “The sort of quirky and unexpected part is the untold story, which is sometimes sexual, sometimes illicit, sometimes questionable, and much more adult than the way we would expect, but the puppets give us permission to have conversations that we might not otherwise have.”

Despite the spectacle of singing, dancing, live music and puppets having sex, Salame said she hopes the audience will find the deeper message in “Avenue Q.”

“What I hope people take away is that life will continue to be hard and we will continue to face challenges that work against some of the things that we hope for ourselves,” she said. “But in the face of those challenges, if you look around, you are so often surrounded by a loving community that is there to help and support you through the growing pains. And that to me is what the heart of the play is about.”

“Avenue Q” opens Friday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Robinson Theatre and runs through Nov. 17, with a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, Nov. 11. Visit University Theatre for more information. Tickets can be purchased at the door or through the UO ticket office.

—By Sharleen Nelson, University Communications